|
Television
With No Borders / GIVE
P
We
Preserve The Moment /
KASLC
The
word is MORE at NAMM
By Lyle
Bunn
The 2003 NAMM show
of the International Music Products
Association held in Anaheim, CA gathered
the music makers. The message of NAMM was
"more of everything". More musical
instruments, more production equipment,
more entertainment, more enthusiasm and
more Elton John.
The major instrument
trend was the introduction of equipment at
the lower end of the market, one generally
not served by the industry.
Sabian, the renowned
symbol specialists noted in introducing
its XX20 line, that new music styles need
different symbols. Creating loud
hard-driving rock and punk, places demands
on symbols that warrant a stronger symbol
that can still deliver top sound quality
and tone.
Many firms
introduced lower cost models for practice
use, and as introductory products for
emerging music creators. Amplifiers at the
25-watt level were introduced by big names
such as Marshall, Peavey and others.
This trend was
apparent in recording equipment as well.
Mixing and digital production studios for
home studio use will have appeal to music
outlets, agents and bands serving the
"first CD" market.
There was also more
entertainment at NAMM. Fans lined up for
hours at times for autographs and a few
words with their favorite musician.
A NAMM highlight was
a benefit concert sponsored by Yamaha and
NAMM featuring Sir Elton John that raised
$330,000 for music education charities.
Sir Elton closed the show with a half
dozen signature tunes after ten other
notables including Bruce Hornsby, Dianna
Kroll and others offered their rendition
of Elton John favorites. For more
information see www.namm.com.
lylebunn@hotmail.com
//
WiFi
and Security dominates NetWorld + InterOp
Telecommunications event.
By Lyle Bunn from
Las Vegas
Spring 2003 / The
"business geeks", that rare breed of
highly technologically literate and
real-world practical, gathered at NetWorld
+ InterOp in Las Vegas April 27 &endash;
May 3, 2003 to share views. Wireless
technologies, security measures and
improving the performance of networking,
storage and computing assets of
organizations dominated
discussions.
A backdrop of the
event was in Key3Media producing the
event. While many of the 97,000 delegates
were oblivious to the firm's corporate
challenges, the hundreds of exhibitors,
media and enterprise buyers that attended,
were clearly pleased that the trade show
and conference producer has stayed
focused.
During the
conference that preceded the trade show,
the tone was as serious as it has ever
been in the engineering world. Wireless
networking and the virtualization of
network resources are both incremental and
breakthrough from the standpoint of
engineering. Each is equally to yet be
truly proven with business models. That
said, each is proceeding, in the same way
that the internet simply proceeded, and
grew and grew and became a part of our
daily lives.
In a keynote address
which opened the trade show, reinforced
the importance of "networks of networks"
through which organizations can enjoy
productivity improvement reaching outside
their own walls. He pointed to fiscal
2002, in which Cisco enjoyed a savings of
about $1.9 billion attributed to the
implementation of Internet business
solutions and related business process
change. The primary applications Cisco
implemented in order to achieve these
productivity savings included workforce
optimization, customer care, and
e-learning solutions. By doing so, Cisco
also increased its total productivity by
as much as 20 percent
company-wide.
Many firms,
including Westinghouse Electric Co.,
Attention Software demonstrated new system
integrity solution, provides IT
organizations with assurance that systems
and
applications are
adhering to established security
baselines. This includes detecting
anomalies that affect the continuous
operation of critical business processes,
real-time delivery of the alert via
pagers, telephones, email and web-based
messages as well as 24 x7 systems and
applications monitoring.
Synad Technologies,
a fabless semiconductor company outlined
deployment of seamless multimode WLAN
(802.11 variant) for low cost dual band
access point based on a single radio
card.
The company's
Mercury5G, a highly integrated 2-dual band
WLAN chip set that enables seamless data
connection of wireless devices, regardless
of the air interface standard encountered.
The demonstration uses a Mercury5G
mini-PCI card in a Windows based laptop PC
environment to show interoperability
between the 5GHz 802.11a and 2.4 GHz
802.11b and 802.11g standards, including
video streaming and data transfer across
both bands.
The Mercury5G
chipset delivers the enhanced MAC
functionality that is critical to the
future of high performance wireless
networks. Powerful security features
include WPA, WEP and AES encryption along
with support for 802.1x authentication
protocols. High quality multimedia
streaming is supported with Point
Coordination Function (PCF) and other
Quality of Service (QoS) protocols enabled
by an advanced DMA engine that delivers
packet prioritization.
Maxtor focused on
creative ways to utilize current data
center resources efficiently in order to
lower costs. By creating different pools
of storage, they can allocate resources as
needed based on an application's
requirements for performance,
availability, capacity and
cost.
A case study of the
Maxtor approach was presented by the
National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children (NCMEC) to discuss how
it uses pools of ATA and SCSI drives to
store and access its expansive national
databases. NCMEC is a non-profit
organization, mandated by the U.S.
Congress to be the Clearinghouse for
missing and exploited children. It works
in cooperation with the U.S. Department of
Justice as well as over 18,000 national
law enforcement agencies in the search for
missing children and the quest for child
protection.
Ranch Networks,
which was exhibiting at N+I for the first
time announced the RN20, a new device
includes 12 Security Zones, Bandwidth
Management for Quality Of Service, Load
Balancing, Real Time Server Health
Monitoring, IP Multicasting, Auto
Discovery, and Layer 2-4 Switching - all
with full manageability and accounting,
and all at a single low price with no
per-user licensing fees. Financial
services firms, universities, technology
vendors, healthcare providers,
communication service providers,
government
entities and most
other organizations will realize immediate
value by introducing the RN20 into their
networks.
Airespace, which has
a partnership with NEC launched and began
shipping its wireless enterprise platform
referencing breakthrough Wireless Platform
Deployed At Duke Medical Center, Berkeley
Engineering, and Silicon Valley Sports And
Entertainment.
The "WOW Iron Chef
of Information Security Competition"
challenged industry-leading Web
Administrators, Network and Security
Engineers to evaluate and fix the security
vulnerabilities present in Internet DMZ
architecture live during NetWorld+Interop
Las Vegas 2003. It was a first-hand look
at how security professionals and Web
administrators perform their jobs. The
competition will be a head-to-head format
with each team competing against the clock
and the other teams.
The Wi-Fi Alliance,
an industry association of WiFi product
providers, described the status of the
first Wi-Fi Protected Access(tm) security
product certifications, the Wi-Fi ZONE(tm)
program launched, IEEE 802.11g
certification plans and updates on 5GHz
regulatory matters and Dual band
products.
F-Secure outlined
the recent rash of cyber-terrorism
(including web defacements and viruses)
they have tracked related to the Iraq war.
New virus attacks
get plenty of media attention, with
popular names like 'Slammer', 'Lirva' and
Lovgate'. These are what F-Secure calls
"loud" threats, and there are many
anti-virus solutions available to combat
them, including F-Secure's own award
winning AV solutions.
But the more
damaging security threats to an enterprise
typically come from "silent" attacks --
network intrusions, server hacks, or even
just eavesdropping on confidential
information and communications. Also, at
risk are lost or stolen cell phones, PDAs
and laptops that contain sensitive
information.
Silent attacks are
usually executed by a malicious employee
or hacker entering the corporate servers
via an unprotected port created by a
remote connection, like an executive who
is connecting from a hotel or home office,
or a systems administrator doing repair
work via Telnet or FTP. These security
breaches can be relatively easily avoided
by using encryption technologies.
F-Secure Corporation
is the leading provider of centrally
managed security solutions for the mobile
enterprise. The company's award-winning
products include anti-virus, file
encryption and network security solutions
for all major platforms from desktops to
servers and from laptops to handhelds.
F-Secure customers include hundreds of
major companies like Shell, IBM, and 90%
of all U.S. Government agencies.
Executive Software
released a new IDC White Paper that
reported significant computing
performance, system stability and uptime
through defragmentation.
Keeping the system
up and running is the first priority. If
the system goes down, work doesn't get
done and money and time are
wasted.
Fragmentation causes
rapid declines in stability. System
crashes, slow file access and even blue
screens are often due to fragmentation.
Diskeeper automatic disk defragmenter is
the proactive solution to fragmentation on
the network.
Radvision announced
a multipoint voice, video, and data
collaboration/conferencing platform that
will integrate with Microsoft Windows
Messenger and the new MS Real-Time
Communications Server. This product has
been named a finalist in the N+I Best of
Show - Convergence Category.
Additionally, it
announced a significant new video
conferencing infrastructure product (a
multipoint conferencing unit with new
media processing features and
functionality, along with an optional new
multimedia processing card.
The firm also
announced and demonstrated the integration
of our viaIP400 voice, video and data
conferencing network infrastructure
platform, which provides all the necessary
components for a video conferencing
solution, with Microsoft's new corporate
server software for enterprise instant
messaging (IM) and real-time
collaboration, code-named "Greenwich."
Enables multipoint
voice, video, and data
collaboration/conferencing over Microsoft
Windows Messenger, important because WM
currently supports only point-to-point
voice, video, and data
collaboration
This integration
brings business class, multipoint voice,
video and data conferencing to the
individual desktop, enabling true personal
multimedia communications within the
enterprise Enabling multipoint video,
voice, and data calls.
Early in March,
Microsoft released the first widely
available beta version of the "Greenwich"
server software, which will allow
businesses to support secure,
standards-based IM and Presence on their
networks. Some key point of interest:
The new Microsoft
server is designed to support multimedia
only on a point-to-point basis and does
not currently support video
internetworking between Windows Messenger
clients and other video conferencing
networks.
CMS Peripherals,
providers of backup and hard drive
solutions for notebook and desktop
computers, showed several product
enhancements to the ABSplus product line,
including a One Button Restore™
module and redirect restore capabilities.
CMS also recently developed a professional
backup software upgrade called
ABSpro™, providing users with
bi-directional synchronization and
versioning capabilities.
WatchGuard outlined
its dynamic, comprehensive Internet
security solutions designed to protect
enterprises that use the Internet for
e-business and secure communications. The
company is a pioneer in the creation of
the plug-and-play Internet security
appliance, the Firebox, and server
security software. The company's
innovative LiveSecurity Service
enables
organizations and users to keep their
security systems up-to-date, and its
ServerLock and AppLock/Web software
provide server content and application
security to protect critical data and
services against unauthorized or
unintentional access or
manipulation.
With firewall/VPN
security appliances considered by most
industry experts to be the preferred
platform for delivering capabilities such
as intrusion prevention, anti-virus
protection and vulnerability assessment
services, WatchGuard is in a strong
position to address the evolving needs of
the small-to medium-enterprise
customer.
For smaller
networks, the Firebox system is a powerful
security solution for central offices, VPN
hubs and remote employees. Firebox III
models (4500, 2500, 1000, 700, and 500)
are designed for small to mid-sized
businesses and central offices with
traveling employees, telecommuters, or
branch offices. Firebox SOHO 6tc is
intended as a VPN endpoint to be used with
a Firebox III, and Firebox SOHO 6 is a
stand-alone firewall for small
businesses.
Targeted at the
larger, distributed enterprise market, the
Firebox Vclass is specifically designed to
address the performance, flexibility, and
scalability requirements of a wide range
of customers running large distributed
networks and data centers. The Firebox
Vclass, which includes the V100, V80, V60,
and V10 models, achieves new benchmarks in
performance, flexibility, and scalability
through its custom-designed security ASIC
and advanced security software.
Voyence, which
provides integrated network configuration
and performance management systems
described the Serious Impact Security and
Physical Disasters Have on Networks. 9/11
truly highlighted the importance of
knowing specifically how your technology
infrastructure and networks are
configured. Many of the companies impacted
by 9/11 lost their networks and had no
idea how to rebuild the networks the way
they were before. Had they used a network
configuration and documentation solution
similar to Voyence Control, they would
have had detailed network documentation
and been able to get their networks up and
running much quicker.
Security breaches
and network configuration changes go
hand-in-hand said the firm. Network
attacks and cyber terrorism are becoming
more and more prevalent in the business
world and when a hacker attacks a device
on the network "changes are made" to that
device. Learn how proactive network
configuration solutions that instantly
identify when changes occur enable IT
professionals to take corrective action
and prevent attacks from causing further
damage.
Network
Configuration Errors Cause 30-80% of
Network Outages. For many businesses, when
the network goes down, the company shuts
down. Industry experts state that 30-80%
of network outages are the result of
configuration errors. Companies need
solutions that enable IT professionals to
configure and test network configurations
before the network goes live. Learn how
you can deploy network configuration
solutions that will ensure network devices
will perform at optimal levels and as a
result significantly reduce network
downtime.
lylebunn@hotmail.com
///
The
Evolution
of Trade Shows… separation at the
watering hole
By Lyle
Bunn
Trade shows have
always been the watering hole around which
an entire commercial food chain gathers.
From resellers to original equipment
manufacturers to major product
integrators, and resource providers from
capital to expertise to novelties; all
gather for the thousands of shows held
annually around the world.
While trade shows
have and will continue to be a throughput
for leads, opportunism and random
connections, an accelerating trend toward
better use of these gatherings is
evolving.
The convention of
speakers offered the starting point of the
evolutionary path. Conference organizers
sought sponsors who quickly sized the
opportunity for profile with "the fish in
a barrel".
The commercial
exhibition grew to the point of being a
prime reason for gathering, since, in
fact, many conference presentation were
thinly veiled commercials and sales
pitches.
Large vertical
market stakeholders (i.e. the "big" firms)
and "could-be's" branched beyond the
conference sessions and trade show floor
with invitation-only gatherings. These
receptions, dinners and outings were held
during, but detached from the trade show
and continue to be a serious investment of
time and money to take fullest advantage
of the watering hole gathering.
These spawned a next
stage of evolution in trade show profile;
the multi-sponsor, "by invitation only"
tabletop reception.
Four firms compete
rigorously in providing companies with
such highly targeted, profile
opportunities. These events gated
outcroppings of the main watering hole and
are extremely effective in linking
supplier companies with people they would
especially like to meet during the
conference and trade show
timeframe.
They work this way.
A large ballroom is
booked with food, open bar and background
entertainment arranged for an evening
reception taking place just before or
early in the trade show.
Companies are then
invited to rent a table on which to
display their wares. 10-30 firms pay
$5-15,000 each for this space depending
upon the size of the table, number of
staff they have on site, the number of
people that they wish to nominate to be
especially invited by event organizers,
etc.
The invited guests
include those most capable of providing
profile to the firms companies sponsoring
the event. This includes highly regarded,
influential industry analysts as well as
Editors, Columnists, Freelancer Writers
and Senior Reporters from media and news
wire services. These guests, as arranged
by the event producer, may be augmented by
the nominees of the sponsoring
firm.
The result is a
highly productive several hour evening of
mini trade show.
Media enjoy easy
access to knowledgeable individuals in
firms that are both savvy and keen to
obtain their attention.
The stories written
by media often emerge or start based on
demonstrations or conversations at these
events with companies. Media like the fact
that new products or features are
introduced at these private events, that
informed individuals (such as Product
Managers) are available for in-depth
discussion, that there is adequate time to
focus on the discussion, that
conversations with company representatives
can be adequately private, and that future
private demonstration and discussion,
usually involving other company
representatives on either the company or
media side can be structured and
organized.
Companies appreciate
the chance to show their products in a
discussion format with those able to put
these into context for a reading or
viewing audience.
The evolution of
these multi-sponsor, by invitation events
is now visible. In addition to media and
analysts, the invitation list is now
extending to include capital providers,
strategic buyers and partners wishing to
enjoy a degree of anonymity. Stealthy
business agents for such organizations add
a value to these events for sponsoring
companies that neither the event producers
nor those representing companies on
display during the evening are aware
of.
The watering hole that is the trade show
and conference will continue in
importance, escalating in value as the
mechanisms to connect people who can make
things happen, evolve.
lylebunn@hotmail.com
////
HiTech\
/ Blade
Servers
&endash; Efficient, cost effective CPU
expansion
By Lyle Bunn,
TVInews.net
A blade server is a
thin, modular electronic circuit board,
containing one, two, or more
microprocessors and memory, that is
intended for a single, dedicated
application (such as serving Web pages)
and that can be easily inserted into a
space-saving rack with many similar
servers. One product offering, for
example, makes it possible to install up
to 280 blade server modules vertically in
multiple racks or rows of a single
floor-standing cabinet. Blade servers,
which share a common high-speed bus, are
designed to create less heat and thus save
energy costs as well as space. Large data
centers and Internet service providers
(ISPs) that host Web sites are among
companies most likely to buy blade servers
because they are cost effective. Blade
servers offer miniaturization for
increased CPU density, and energy
efficient processors for lower power
consumption.
A blade server is
sometimes referred to as a high-density
server, or as ultradense or hyperdense CPU
and is typically used in a clustering of
servers. They are an ideal option for Web
serving and other processing-light and
transaction-heavy applications such as
file sharing, Web page serving and
caching, SSL encrypting of Web
communication, transcoding of Web page
content for smaller displays and Streaming
audio and video content.
Like most clustering
applications, blade servers can also be
managed to include load balancing and
failover capabilities. A blade server
usually comes with an operating system and
the application program to which it is
dedicated already on the board.
Individual blade
servers are usually hot-pluggable and come
in various heights, including 5.25 inches
(the 3U model), 1.75 inches (1U), and
possibly "sub-U" sizes. (A U is a standard
measure of vertical height in an equipment
cabinet and is equal to 1.75 inches.)
Current high-density server solutions max
out with 42 computers, each with 2
processors, in a standard 6-foot rack for
a total of 84 CPUs. Before the end of the
year, however, look for a number of
vendors offering systems with a couple
hundred CPUs per rack.
Some computing
centers are already evaluating efficiency
in terms of processing power per watt and
per square foot, and servers that can pack
in hundreds of processors per rack should
get serious consideration. And of course,
they must run reasonably cool to hold down
electricity costs. Scaling out has a whole
new meaning now that the server is a
single component (motherboard). Together
with management software and packaged
storage systems, they can make a great
solution for front-end systems.
Intel say they have
answered the call with versions of its
mobile CPU that work just fine as server
cluster building blocks. These
ultralow-voltage chips, code-named
Tualatin, can get high per-rack CPU
density numbers and have enough muscle to
get the job done in plenty of
applications. New chipsets supporting dual
processors will soon increase the density
of these systems based on Intel
chips.
A few startups have
blade servers on the drawing boards with
hopes to cash in on your need for cheap
workhorses. Some, such as RLX Technologies
and FiberCycle Networks, are using the new
Crusoe chip from Transmeta, which is
pushing the envelope in low power
consumption. With enough smaller and
faster chips, transactions per square foot
can be higher but lower in cost for
applications such as high traffic Web
serving.
These new servers
will need management systems that can
control of hundreds of processors. They
should have a method to allow
administrators to redirect processor
allocation for different applications and
direct storage control for the processor
arrays from a central location.
The blade server
makers have pitched it as a lower
total-cost-of-ownership solution by
combining high transactions per square
foot with virtual command and control.
At InterOp held in
Las Vegas late April 27-May 2, blade
servers were just getting onto the agenda.
Dave Roberts, VP Strategy of
inkranetworks, Freemont California
cautioned that "blade technology could be
seen as simply a different bundling
approach to deliver processing, network or
storage power" He added, it is very
important to apply the technology to its
best use"
A design benefit of
these blade systems is that they use a
specialized high-speed bus to connect the
series of exposed motherboards &endash;
it's like plugging in oversized expansion
cards. These headless servers can maintain
fast, rock solid communications at gigabit
speeds with each other via their
interconnection bus, and also can be
managed better.
There are no cables
coming from each server because all of its
communications are sent and received
through the special bus, allowing racks to
be really cleaned up and organized. Some
systems need as few as six cables for a
fully loaded rack when connected to power,
storage, and the network.
Many of these
ultradense solutions are built and
configured as 'server appliances.' They
run preinstalled software for specialized
services such as content streaming,
encryption, and load balancing.
Their attractive
value is that you get high density with
lower total cost. For example, e-Appliance
has its SuperScaler line of 1U servers
each containing 4 hot-pluggable blade
servers. By using pre-loaded software on
new blades when installing, systems can be
serviced and expanded with minimal time
and cost.
Many of the new
blade servers will have integrated
components fit into the new blade
architecture. Egenera makes the BladeFrame
System. It creates a pool of up to 96
high-end Intel processors, and has special
blades that work as redundant integrated
controllers and switches.
In true high tech
devise fashion, some of the big companies
have declared their ownership of
particular markets despite not yet having
shipped product. Meantime, Asian product
producers are ready to supply and are
partnering with North American firms to
enjoy blade server revenues as they
emerge….and they will, quickly. This
is a "makes-sense" technology. Blade meets
a need simply and
cost-effectively.
lylebunn@hotmail.com
///
Dalsa
unveils Digital Cinema camera at
NAB
By Lyle
Bunn
Spring Issue 2003 /
The entertainment and broadcast equipment
industry is as global as it gets. So few
would distinguish the Canadian roots of
Dalsa Corporation, which is headquartered
in Waterloo, Canada with offices and 700
staff around the world, as its stages a
key role in the entertainment industry.
The entertainment industry is territory
pioneered, created and advanced with
Canadian innovation such as Imax, the
studio structure, cinema chains and
digital collaboration.
At the National
Association of Broadcasters (NAB) April
2003 gathering in Las Vegas, Dalsa was
noticed when it unveiled its OriginTM
digital cinematography camera for
availability in Q1 of 2004.
The Hollywood, TV
and broadcast trend is digital. This trend
is backed by individual companies
providing digital image and audio capture,
production and presentation. At NAB, fifty
key technology providers to the
entertainment and broadcast industries
announced their support for the MXF
Material eXchange Format. MXF allows the
exchange of essence (video, audio, etc)
and metadata files (supporting information
and files) between equipment and systems
provided by the major suppliers in the
industry. Integrated workflow is achieved
when MXF and AAF Advanced Authoring Format
are used together.
AAF is the format
for the authoring and construction of
compositions with storage of the resultant
project data. There was no doubt that
digital has arrived. Digital image capture
is a full court press by brand name
equipment providers such as Sony,
Panasonic and others. The workflow
advantages are further derived in
postproduction as added features in
animation tools, digital file transport
and other functions are improved. Finally,
digital projection is improving and coming
down in price as firms such as Barco,
Christie and others introduce new
projection capability. Dalsa has chosen
it's timing to enter the market
well.
Dalsa's strength in
algorithms for digital image capture is
manifested in the entertainment creation
market. By collaborating with Denny
Clairmont and Ed DiGiulio, each living
legends in cinemagraphic equipment, and
informing entertainment industry insiders
of its progress, Dalsa is assured
consideration of its camera.
The specs on the
Origin make it appealing. In summary, 4046
X 2048 full pixels. 4:4:4 RGB at 4K
resolution 8.2 million active pixels.
Frame rates that are user controlled and
continuously variable from 1 fps uncranked
to 48 overcranked, 24 fps standard. 2
times more spatial information in green
(luminance), the same spatial information
in red and blue (chrominance). 2.8 times
larger signal capacity in each pixel
offering substantially improved image
depth information. And to top it off, the
ability to use existing PL mount
lenses.
Watch for Dalsa and
the Origin. See www.dalsa.com / Dr. Savvas
Chamberlain, CEO, Dalsa Corporation with
its OriginTM digital cinematography camera
unveiled April 8, 2003 at NAB
lylebunn@hotmail.com
We
Preserve The Moment
Returnˆ
To
Top
|
